This week Google announced they were closing Reader, and many of us news junkies panicked as we searched for another solution. We asked our audience, “What is the best alternative?“, and began searching for a new home to manage our feeds. I thought it would be a long journey or difficult transition, but then I discovered Feedly and I instantly fell in love.

Feedly operates in much the same way that Google Reader did, but it adds a ton of additional features and it does it with style. The web app and mobile clients are simply beautiful, and importing all my existing feeds only took a single click.

I’ve only been using the service for around 48 hours, but I can say with confidence that I will not be missing Google Reader. In fact, I’m a little pissed that I didn’t know about Feedly sooner.

Taylor is the founder of Android and Me. He resides in Dallas and carries the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and HTC One as his daily devices. Ask him a question on Twitter or Google+ and he is likely to respond. | Ethics statement

Most Tweeted This Week

I’m in the same boat … how the heck did I miss this one??? And Feedly on a Nexus 10 … with that screen … gorgeous stuff.

Edwin Khodabakchian

Hi Jay. Thanks. Note: we will be releasing feedly for Android next week. Expect to see a lot of performance optimization for Nexus 10! -Edwin

Chris Clark

While you’re at it, can you FIX the bugs? EVERY version of Feedly I’ve ever used, including the current one, logs me out every day. I have to re-login and re-set up all my feeds every day, that is the #1 reason I always stop using it. It’s done it on iOS and Android since day 1 of Feedly’s release. I get so sick of logging in and setting up the same app EVERY day. This has happened through multiple installs on at least 6 devices running both operating systems. Feedly is 100% useless if it won’t stay logged in.

mlhope

+1

I’m also surprised that this hasn’t been addressed.

Jop

The fact that I can’t sort my feeds by oldest first makes this app useless for me.

Yousif Anwar

Well it’s available now :)

Vlad

Same here ..

Matt

on the mobile app? where can i find it?

MattJ

You can but not in magazine view

Click on the cog.

Choose titles or time line.

Click on the cog again – under filters choose Oldest First

MattJ

Scratch that. It’s not the same on the android app. Sorry

Jop

So sort by oldest still doesn’t work on Android is what you’re saying?

Edwin Khodabakchian

Hi Jop, This is Edwin from feedly. Agreed. This feature will be as part of the feedly 14 android update we will push out later this week. If you are interested in trying the beta, please send me an email to edwin@feedly.com

I feel the same way about NetVibes. It fills all the shortcomings and complaints I had about GR. I use GR every day, throughout the day. It ruined my day when they announced. I’m now not only glad GR got sunsetted but wish I had found netvibes sooner.

I haven’t tried Feedly only because I didn’t want to install anything. I prefer the cloud approach with either NV or NewsBlur.

http://androidandme.com Taylor Wimberly

You don’t have to install any of the clients. You can use their web app in your browser.

xyzyxx

Link please. I can’t find a web app.

Josue Andrade Gomes

Installed Feedly as soon I got the news about GR. Unfortunately it crashed so often I had to install. Now I’m using Netvibes on desktop and on mobile (via browser).

Ismael J Rodriguez

The only question that I have…what’s the best way to subscribe to feeds after Google drops Reader? Do we just to search for the wanted site’s feed on Feedly or will the Chrome extension handle that?

http://androidandme.com Taylor Wimberly

Feedly lets you add new sites by URL, title, or #topic. It’s actually really easy to subscribe to new sites and they have lots of suggested sites to discover new sources.

thekaz

I believe feedly has promised a way to migrate your feeds once google reader goes dark..?

The website is awesome but the mobile app is terrible. Its much slower that google reader and the widget is useless. On my phone, I just want as much info as quickly as possible using the least amount of data. The Feedly app is not even in the same league as google reader in that department.

J3R3MY_H

one more thing…

You cant scroll in the feedly app. You can only view one page at a time with different transition effects. Its annoying. And the list view that Taylor is mentioning still downloads pics for every headline.

Edwin Khodabakchian

Thanks for the feedback. The mobile 14 version we will release next week comes with a picture less list view.

Yes, but Minimal Reader Pro depends completely on Google Reader. Once Reader is gone, it will stop working. The author will need to sync to a different service. That’s the main problem right now, all the apps using the Google Reader API. :(

sylvan

Including Feedly, as of right now, I believe. We’ll see if their clone ‘Normandy’ holds up.

Harold Goldner

Thank you Google. I’m just sorry I didn’t discover Feedly a long time ago. Amazing across all platforms.

Peter

Doesn’t work on WP8 :-(

http://muddypa.ws/blog nportelli

Are we talking on Android? Because the web app stinks.

MarkD

Feedly is great but so many sites include a shortened version of the article *nudge nudge* in the RSS feed – making any reader as good as the mobile version of a website.

Awesome. Sincerest apologies there chap… It’s like I’ve been living in a cave with a small window.

Meister_Li

Unfortunately, the Widget is kinda useless. It’s not scrollable and it only shows one story at a time. I’d much prefer just a list with Titles instead of one huge image.

Raffaele

About the web app: kindla like it, the workflow is pretty much the same, but Reader is really more polished: space in the page is handled in a better way.

Android app: well, it’s usable, but not great, but I can live with it.

Overall: ok, but still just a replacement.

JagCrp

In the Android app, how do you mark all as read?

http://androidandme.com Taylor Wimberly

Click the check mark in the top right corner.

thekaz

… or swipe down with your finger to mark all on that page as read. This is one of the things I like about the app.

CoolRaoul

On the top right corner I only have a magnifying glass, no check mark at all

On individual sub sections, “mark as read” is possible though using the menu under the “gear” icon

But still loooking how to make *all feeds* as read in a single operation.

(which is possible using the web app by going to the “ALL” section and, from, there marking all read)

bluprint

What about integration with social feeds like your Facebook account or Gmail (all on one screen)? Podcasts? Those are a couple other features I like about NV (it even has a built-in player for podcasts). I tried forever to integrate my podcast feeds to GR and didn’t have much luck with it.

Also it has a pay version that includes analysis of your feeds and allows integration with your Google Analytics account, if you’re into that kind of thing.

GB

This will work. The only thing I will miss is GR automatically updated and Feedly needs to be refreshed.

I like Feedly though. Although for the web view, I just wish that instead of having to install a browser add-on, I could just log in and read.

triangle

Thanks for the tip, Taylor!

Da

The great thing about Google Reader was the numberless apps that built on it.

In fact, I am so dependend on NewsRob that I will migrate to whatever service this app will support in the future.

Feedlys mobile app is garbage for power users. It’s certainly nice if one follows five blogs or so, but I have more than 300, most of which update less than once per week, I don’t need flashy, I need an efficient workflow.

Edwin Khodabakchian

Hi Da, This is Edwin from feedly. I would love to understand your workflow and see what we can do in v15 to better support people like you. If you have some time, could you please email me at edwin@feedly.com

aaronfg

I agree completely. I have so many feeds organized in folders that for me, my daily rss time needs to be fast and full of info.

I find the feedly app to be a lot of wasted space with the big cover photos that I can’t seem to get rid of.

And no use of volume buttons to go previous/next on articles means the app is useless to me for one-handed subway reading (which is how 99% of my rss reading is done).

I’ll keep it installed so I can check on the updates, but for now, it’s a no go.

Foggyflute

I use feedly for years with out any problem.

Last morning, flocks of people check it out after hearing they got alternative back-end, they crash the server then leave angry thinking it’s a piece of crap that didn’t load right (which is not true). The forum flooded with request of GR feature as if feedly should have it from beginning…

Watching all of this happen kinda fun to me, and good for those guy at feedly team, the pay app they planning will making them good money. The app got 2 major update with new features but the first one (beta app) kinda more suitable as Reader replacement – too bad, you guys can not get it now :))

zen

how do you organise your feeds list alphabetically in feedly?

Edwin Khodabakchian

Coming in next week’s v14 update. -Edwin

aranea

I know I’m stuck in the past but I still use listen as my podcast client. With reader gone listen will be gone too. Any good alternatives on that front? Something that automatically downloads several episodes to my phone and deletes the ones I’ve listen to etc.

I did try a few RSS Readers after the Google announcement and for sure Feddly is my favorite as a desktop, phone and tablet version.

Dan Jones

I read Google Reader through NewsRob, which offers offline support, and a mobile-optimized view. Feedly has neither of these things, so it’s not a suitable replacement for me.

I’m hopeful that Digg’s upcoming GReader replacement will be what I’m looking for.

JeffRosenberg

I feel exactly the same. It’s funny; ust a few months ago, I was looking to see if there were any apps I could use to improve on the default Reader experience, and I didn’t stumble across Feedly then. I wish I had!

NasLAU

I have my preferred readers: BeyondPod and Flipboard. But I get my most of my feeds from Google Reader. I can export my GR feeds and import them into BeyondPod but for Flipboard I would have to manually add each one. Sucks!

Rick

Totally agree! Feedly appears to be fantastic. It looked “ok” as a Chrome plug-in, but the mobile apps on phone/tablet are the real gems.

Yes. Sorry. It is a bug. You can use the google+ email capability instead. -Edwin

jamal adam

I’ve been using Feedly for a couple of years now and couldn’t be more happier.

rushdamian

Feedly looks like a suitable replacement to GR; however, I found that the Share option for Feedly doesn’t include the Google+ option *without first having to +1 the post.* On GR you had the option to either +1 or share the post to G+, but Feedly makes you +1 the post to be allowed to share to G+. I find that somewhat annoying since every Wednesday I curate a webcomic flood on my public stream and don’t want to fill up my +1 tab on my G+ profile with my shared webcomic feeds, (which number over 60 at this time.) On Feedly right now I can +1 and share the post then undo the +1, but that seems like a couple too many steps for what I want to accomplish. Am I the only one that finds this somewhat annoying? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

Edwin Khodabakchian

Better and more customizable sharing coming in next week’s v14 – including Google+

Too bad there’s 16,000+ folks “in the import queue” ahead of me, and probably a whole lot of other vistitors, at The Old Reader site — and that’s well after 24 hours following the import of my Google Reader subscription.xml file. I realize they’re probably running the site out of their garage, but…wow. The Old Reader gets an A- for duplicating Google Reader’s interface, but a solid F for supporting the influx of new customers — they’re going to have to be a lot more agile than this if they want to attract new users. I’m grudgingly back to using Feedly.

chris2kari

Freely is ,much nicer than plowing through GR. But where it really shines is in combination with Pocket. Pocket is directly supported by Feedly.
Freely + Pocket = nirvana!!!
Now I flick through feedly, pocket anything I want to read & boom, I’m done!
Reading pages is Pocket is so much faster since I don’t have to endure all those idiot ads. Pocket can be set to download the decluttered pages in the background. Wonderful on any mobile device. Feedly also has an excellent Mac desktop client.
Feedly + Pocket.. Both free services… Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!

Jself

I’m not using it because it’s not as compact/condensed as Google Reader, especially the desktop web version, I just want a simple text list of articles to peruse through, no images.

Mike McLin

One of the best things about GR was the fact that it was the most popular RSS reader. There were a bunch of different apps you could choose from that supported the service. So no matter what app you chose, you would always keep your GR account to power it. Personally, on my computer I would use the GR website, and on the go I would use the Reeder app on my iPad.

Nee

Does anyone know how to search saved items in Feedly? When you search in “this section only” it searches all subscriptions, not just saved items.

Dave Bernstein

1. there is no way to mark all feeds in a category as read

2. there is no pure “list view” without pictures

Dave

Raphaellz

1 you just have to select the category and click on the settings button and mark all as read.
2 theres no pure list view only on phone, theres Titles options on the settings button for desktop.

Raphaellz

The only thing I will miss of google reader is the search engine, it was so good.
I love Greader on desktop but i hate it on phone, but i love feedly on phone and hate it on desktop :(

Radames

Will there be any changes to podcast support? I listen to various shows on my phone and I dont see an option to download for offline listening. Maybe Im missing it? Also, when you launch a podcast you cant turn off your display without it stopping the media. With GR you could stream and turn off your screen to prevent accidental screen touches and better conservation of your battery.